Shoppers Gearing up for Black Friday

Things have slowly started to change in recent years when it comes to shopping for the Christmas holiday season. For ages people would gorge themselves on food for Thanksgiving and stumble into a near hibernation-like slumber before getting up early the next morning to land great Black Friday deals.

Black Friday had become almost a holiday in itself over the years with companies bringing in items at a massive discount in the hopes of luring people into their businesses. It was a way to guarantee they could get into the black for the year and it proved incredibly successful. People would line up around buildings at all hours of the night in the hope of landing the greatest possible deal on a marquee gift for someone in their family.

At one point the numbers did start to dip, not going away, but certainly becoming less staggering than in years past, but that’s to be expected when the economy starts to plummet. Black Friday started to give way to Cyber Monday; people learned they could shop without the headaches using their internet for home, so why deal with the crowds? The last couple years though, as the economy has rebounded, Black Friday has seen a resurgence of popularity that has forced a bit of a change in how Christmas shopping occurs again.

Over the last couple of years we’ve seen a big change occur with retailers suddenly opening up Thursday evening for their “Black Friday” deals, something that’s becoming known as a bit of a “Brown Thursday” of sorts. Stores are opening earlier each year, with some even considering opening the entire day sometime in the future.

This is a very controversial theory, but one that hasn’t deterred people from considering it. Opening your store around eight at night isn’t really that bad of an idea – it allows family time all day long while still allowing for deal seeking at night, the best of both worlds. The benefit is that you’re not forcing yourself to wake at some ungodly hour on Friday risking life and limb in the hopes of getting a discounted television or video game system.

Shoppers have a chance to relax the day after Thanksgiving and just enjoy time with their family. With the addition of specials on Thanksgiving night gaining ground it was only a matter of time before retailers started looking for other avenues to make money, and it appears that they’ve found a way to expand everything once again.

The latest trick has been to start their supposed Black Friday sales at the beginning of the month – appliance sales being the primary example – running from the first week of November to the first week of December. Another trend has been leaking out Black Friday ads ahead of time, giving people the opportunity to game plan what they want to purchase before the day arrives.

As the years progress the strategy to landing as many dollars in revenue as possible from the consumer continues to expand with Cyber Monday becoming such a big deal. Many retailers are now using their websites for exclusive sales, online only deals, and early bird discounts in order to keep people with them instead of going to online only retailers.

The big question is what will be the future of Black Friday? Staying open all day on Thanksgiving seems to be the biggest possibility, although that may be going just a bit far, especially with the backlash over just a few companies opening later in the day on Thanksgiving. Like many situations, businesses will always be about maximizing their earnings, so who knows what could transpire in the future.